The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to a component bay for an information handling system.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Typical IHSs include an IHS chassis that houses some or all of the components of the IHS. To lower cost and simplify manufacturing, the IHS chassis may be provided to be used across different IHS platforms. However, these different IHS platforms may require different numbers, orientations, and types of modular components such as, for example, hard drives. The positioning of these modular components in the IHS chassis raises a number of issues.
For example, an IHS chassis may be used for a first platform and a second platform, with the first platform requiring a plurality of first hard drives in a first location and orientation, and the second platform requiring a plurality of second hard drives in a second location and orientation. These differences in number, location, orientation, and type of hard drives may be driven by many factors such as, for example, thermal considerations, space consideration, the need to allow room for future component upgrades or reconfigurations, and a variety of other factors known in the art. Conventionally, a plurality of different hard drive bays are used to allow the hard drives to be coupled to the IHS chassis. For example, a first hard drive bay may be used in the IHS chassis for the first platform in order to couple a plurality of first hard drives to the IHS chassis in a particular location and orientation. A second hard drive bay then may be used in the IHS chassis for the second platform in order to couple a plurality of second hard drives to the IHS chassis in a particular location and orientation. The need for a plurality of different hard drive bays in order to allow the use of an IHS chassis across different platforms increases manufacturing time, complexity, and cost.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved component bay.